ABB upgrades Reliance Chemical facility live

Zurich, Switzerland, June 5, 2008 - The project involved an on-line evolution from the facility's original control system, dating from 1988, to a state-of-the-art distributed control system, while maintaining the plants existing process control philosophy.

Ranjan Bhattacharya, Vice President of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) for instrumentation at the Patalganga facility, noted, This was a unique project for RIL in that it was the first ever implementation of an on-line evolution of one of their petrochemical plants automation systems.

The Reliance Group is Indias largest private sector enterprise, with businesses in the energy and materials value chain and annual revenue in excess of US $2 billion. Its flagship company, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is the largest private sector company in India.

RIL is Indias largest manufacturer of linear alkyl benzene (LAB) with a plant at Patalganga that has an annual output of 110,000 tons per year. LAB is the basic raw material for detergents. The overall LAB industry capacity in India is 350,000 tons per year; RILs production represents a significant share of this market.

RILs LAB plant was commissioned in 1988 and was equipped with ABB MOD30 controllers that were linked to a VAX system. With subsequent projects to increase plant capacity, the control system was expanded to a MOD-300 DCS using ABB Model B and SC controllers. Later, AC460 controllers were added. The complete control system consisted of approximately 1,400 I/O points. As the Model B and SC controllers became dated and more costly to maintain, RIL decided to upgrade the complete control system with a new generation, state-of-the-art distributed control system.

ABBs System 800xA Extended Automation was selected for the upgrade. This leading edge solution provides a Windows platform, and highly reliable 800 Series I/O modules; and features a true Open System architecture and OPC compliance. Also, service support is available, and the company is already familiar with the 800xA system since one had been installed at RILs Hazira complex. The 800xA system installed at the LAB plant at Patalganga, similar to the one at Hazira, includes software for operations, maintenance and management of the asset. The hardware portion of the system has many redundant features that help ensure a high degree of operability.

Detailed engineering for the project carried the plants existing control philosophy forward. The RIL LAB plant has two distinct sections to control, referred to as the Front-End and the Back-End. The Front-End area is used to produce raw material for the Back-End area that produces LAB.

A database was designed for appropriate applications for each area. In all, there are 20 diverse applications for the facility with different task cycles. This has made the 800xA system truly distributed and this architecture helps maintenance engineers to easily identify the loops, tags and the logic of a particular part of the control system.

Seamless Evolution from one system to another The transition from the earlier control system to the 800xA system was well planned and went smoothly, without a single upset or shutdown of the facility. It was conducted in two stages.

The Front-End area of the plant was evolved first. Open loops were transferred, one by one, to the 800xA system over a period of time. Then, complex loops followed, receiving special care. Once the Front-End area was commissioned, the plant entered an observation phase for six months to monitor how well the new system would perform.

Satisfied with its operation, the Back-End area was transferred in similar fashion.

Customer evaluation We have successfully completed the upgrade of the LAB DCS from MOD-300 to ABBs 800xA. We congratulate the ABB team for achieving the objective of the project to our satisfaction, commented Ranjan Bhattacharya, Vice President of RIL for instrumentation at the Patalganga facility. As this project progressed, we came across the powerful tools provided by ABB 800xA for process control. RIL always likes to be part of technology enhancement.

Project Benefits

Plant continued operation during upgrade to System 800xA

New system architecture reduced variance in critical loops

Upgrade minimized the need for operator intervention during changeovers

Advanced technology provided easier navigation and understanding of the process

Easy access to information like Standard Operating Procedures and Loop drawings as an aspect for operation and maintenance personnel convenience

Leadership in system evolution ABB is well recognized in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries for providing an evolutionary path for its customers with an installed base of DCS systems to move to the next level of functionality and productivity. As seen in this example, it is possible to accomplish an upgrade to the 800xA system live or with minimal shutdown to the process.

ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 110,000 people.